This is the same reason Splinter Cell went to their formula as well. These guys are not the Red Cross, they're in business to sell to a mass audience and if they like that stupid crap then that's what they're going to do if it means more sales.

There's a point to adapting to the market and a point of copying Call of Duty. Every FPS on the planet with the exception of Battlefield (and even them to a small degree) is now trying to copy Call of Duty cash in on it's success. The problem is that everyone already has Call of Duty, and they get a new one every year or two.

So how has copying Call of Duty been working out for people?

The Medal of Honor studio just closed.

Crysis 2's multiplayer was trash.

Homefront was bad.

Halo's community is dying.

People need something different, which is why Titanfall is the most anticipated next gen game. It's fresh. It's different. Halo needed to stick to it's roots while somehow offering something new and refreshing. Slapping perks in that completely break the flow and balance of the game is more frustrating than fun.

I'm looking forward to Titanfall because while even though the main gun combat might seem similar, that seems to be the only thing that is Call of Duty based which is to be expected from the guy that created the series. Honestly, for them to carry over that type of gun play isn't bad either because it is (was) solid to a degree...just hoping this iteration doesn't have horrible hit detection along with quick scoping. Killstreaks seem to be non-existent also with the exceptions of the titans themselves, but they are on timers anyway so everyone gets them regardless. You only get them faster the more you kill or gain points.

Agreed, the gun play in COD has been fun when I've played. I just dislike all the perks and kill streaks. Titanfall seems to not have that stuff, unless there's something I haven't seen. Does it even have loadouts?

I actually did like perks and killstreaks in CoD 4 and WaW. It was a nice tweak to the formula that didn't throw the whole game out of whack because they were subtle. MW2 however was such a poorly built game that umbalanced perks and killstreaks were just among numerous other problems. It never recovered.

Of course leaderboards don't help the issue either. That's a big problem in every big name first person shooter in existence, but it's exaggerated in CoD because killstreaks makes it too easy to focus on your K/D rather than the objective of the game.

So what I want is...

Subtle customization. It can take the form of perks so long as nothing breaks the flow of gameplay.

Leaderboards that are designed in such a way that no one can say "LOL your ____ score is ____ you have no right to talk seriously about this game!"

That's not surprising. I mean, after-all there's a level in Halo 4 where you call in a missile and you can direct it just like in COD. It's pretty clear they didn't go through making that simply because "lol it'll be fun for 10 seconds once."